Cope Field by TL Simpson is a powerful, emotional YA contemporary that tackles anger, expectations, and identity with raw honesty. At the heart of the story is Crawford “Craw” Cope — a teen known for his temper, but what people don’t see is the pressure and pain that boil beneath the surface. When he’s sentenced to community service for hitting his father with a baseball bat, Craw ends up repairing a rundown field… soon to be named after his dad, a former pro baseball player. Talk about complicated.

This book explores so much more than just a troubled teen. It's about generational pressure, unspoken trauma, and finding the strength to be honest about who you are — even if it risks everything. Craw's relationship with Hannah, a punk rock girl with her own set of issues, adds warmth and humor to an otherwise gritty narrative. Their friendship (and slow-burn romance) feels real and gives Craw space to grow.

As a parent, I found this story particularly moving. The portrayal of Craw’s father — a man who isn’t a bad person, but who loses sight of his role as a dad — felt painfully accurate. It’s a powerful reminder that kids need parents, not just coaches or dream-pushers.

Simpson writes with clarity and emotional insight. The pacing is strong, the characters are well-developed, and the message is one that will resonate with both teens and adults.

If you're a fan of emotionally charged, character-driven YA with depth and heart, Cope Field belongs on your shelf. I laughed, cried, and rooted for Craw all the way. Five stars.

Top Five Reasons to Read Cope Field
5. Be true to you.
4. Dysfunctional family with lots of secrets.
3. Finding a friend who cares.
2. The slow burn revealing the truth.
1. Fantastic writing involving sensitive topics.

★ ★ ★ ★

This small book packed a huge punch from start to finish. Craw is a teenage boy who suffers from abuse from his father, who happens to be a baseball legend in their small town. He knows no one will believe him so he lashes out in anger which ultimately lands him doing community service.

And of course his community service involves the local baseball field that’s being named after his dad, which doesn’t help the situation. But what Craw isn’t planning on is meeting a young girl, Hannah, that’s outspoken and blunt to a fault. She makes Craw evaluate his life and gain the strength he needs to stand up for himself.

As an adult who suffered childhood trauma, this book is both hard to read and undeniably important to read for kids 12 and up. I feel like the messages in this story will stand the test of time and help many children.

♡ coming of age
♥ childhood trauma
♡ blossoming friendship
♥ community service
♡ dark truths

{I was gifted a complimentary copy of this book. All reviews are my own.}

Thank you for having me in this tour. I will update this soon. My post in the link below.
Social and family issues, anger, baseball, YA read.

I finished Cope Field a couple of weeks ago and I’m still thinking about it. The takeaways are powerful — the fact that someone can have all of the money in the world and be going through such hardships behind the scenes, that a game doesn’t dictate your worth, how two teenagers bonded and worked through their traumas together. I was touched by Craw’s protectiveness of his younger brother and how Hannah influenced him to speak up. He went from being a main character I was super unsure about in the beginning (I mean, he did hit his dad with a baseball bat), to really routing for him in the end.

On another note, there’s a bit of mystery intertwined and I liked that it didn’t distract from the overall plot, but you were still wanting to know what happened!

T. L. Simpson knocked it out of the park with this one (pun intended).

I am lucky enough to have never been forced into competing past my comfort level. My parents were disappointed but ultimately accepting when I chose to stop playing piano. But when you compete in any field, you can see how intense certain parents are their children's accomplishments, and this is exponential when the parent is a former competitor in that field. People brush it off as "tough love" but some of my grandma's stories about training for the NYC Ballet are actually abuse! And we need to be able to recognize the difference between healthily pushing your body, and actively hurting yourself.

Crawford Cope can't do that at the beginning of this book. He is the strong and silent type. He blames himself for failures that are not always his, and he is afraid of himself. He is a victim but sees himself as the aggressor. You know how they say the devil you know is better than the devil you don't? He spends much of this book rationalizing that living with a known quantity (abusive father) is better than the alternative (unreliability of foster care and separation of sibling).

The small town setting was so painfully realistic. I moved to a city when I was 13 but damn if I don't remember how weird rural Southern towns get about their sports. Hannah was also an incredibly realistic character - we all knew that one punk kid who didn't fit into the hillbilly aesthetic (or in some cases, we were the punk kid). Having each chapter titled after a song was so fitting. I made myself a playlist and it was so much fun having a mix of new songs and some songs that were total throwbacks. I haven't listened to punk in a while but now I'm right back in it.

Their relationship was sooooo well-written. I got tears during their arguments and went all gooey inside at the finale. They deserve some good things.

Simpson has made an excellent tribute to small town America, to speaking your truth, and to learning that sometimes your heroes aren't heroes.

In his sophomore novel, COPE FIELD, T.L Simpson has done it again—cracked open my heart and made me give a shit about books revolving around sports. I didn't think that was possible after such a powerful debut, STRONG LIKE YOU, but here we are. And for that I say: thank you. It is so rare to read teen novels with male leads that deal with trauma and toxicity in such a realistic manner, yet to do with it such heart and warmth is a true gift. One that this author has clearly mastered through his unabashed way of writing about characters with real-world problems who handle it in both a reluctant and vulnerable way. I will follow Simpson wherever he wants to take me—sports, trauma, and all.

Copeland's father tries to recreate his pro baseball career through his sons but abuse & violence shatter their relationship. Murder and sports collide in this novel.

Fans of Friday Night Lights and Catcher in the Rye should take the time to read this book. The author must have lived in a small town because he evoked the feel of the isolation, the way people hang their hopes on sports, and the pervasive drug and abuse problems that harm families. Crawford Cope is the strong solid type, but he has anger problems. As the book goes on we come to find out that there's more to the story than just that and that Craw is a good kid with a raw deal. He has the world on his shoulders as he tries to keep his family together and shield his little brother from his dad's temper.

When assigned community service for his anger issues, he meets another misfit, Hannah Flores. Hannah introduces him to punk and pushes him way outside of his comfort zone. There is a teen romance that is authentic, but not the main point of the book. I loved the way Hannah was portrayed and I love the way each chapter is a punk song, presumably from her playlist.

Teens will enjoy this angsty drama, and I can't wait to read the other books by this author.

An emotional, well-written novel about a serious topic that is handled with care. Pacing is a little off, in a way that impacted my enjoyment of reading but did not affect the overall impact of the story. Definitely will be recommending and picking up a copy for my library.

definitely worth reading!! i liked this a lot but something about this book just doesn’t sit right with me. i feel like somethings missing but i cant figure out what :/ other than that it was pretty good!

This is a beautiful, important, heartbreaking novel about a teen trying to figure out who he is and where he belongs. The voice is phenomenal, the pacing is perfect, and the characters so well-drawn they leap off the page. As the truth of Cope's life slowly comes to light and he realizes truths he'd long buried, the reader's heart breaks along with his. I loved this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book

This was my first read of 2024, and honestly, it was a lot better than i expected, i was expecting to hate Craw, but i didn't, i really liked him, and i also loved the relationship between him and big time. this sibling relationship felt real to me.

I did enjoy the relationship of Hannah and Craw, i think it was well written and realistic.

Overall i really did enjoy this book

Cope Field was a gorgeous and heartwrenching novel. Simpson's writing blew me away--I was hooked from the very first chapter. Craw's journey from anger to self-acceptance was incredibly powerful, and Hannah's raw authenticity was exactly what he needed to finally grow. If you're looking for a compelling coming of age novel that tugs at your heartstrings, this one is it!

Book was so slow moving. not sure if it was the writing style or just a slow plotline. Either way, this is a miss for me.

One of my FAVORITE reads of this year. Cope Field is an absolute triumph. Simpson’s sophomore book is a beautiful, heart-wrenching story about a boy who loves big in spite of his pain. It’s about the courage it takes to proverbially kill your heroes and find your own voice, and while he tore me apart, Simpson’s prose also put me back together with hope and the possibility for healing. A must-read.

I love this book, it had a lot of feeling in it. The world building was so well defined that you felt like you experience it, The characters had personality to them and their experience, that is gonna make the teens feel this world. It is beautifully written and defined. I love this author's writing style and I personally cannot wait to read more by them. This an absolute must buy for the high school teens in your life

They say he got anger issues. Is it true? Because how come a son of a living legend who soon will follow his dad's footstep has anger issues?

Strong Like You, the author's debut novel, is one of male protagonist YA books that stay in my heart and mind, so it's no surprise that I anticipate Cope Field to do the same. Spoiler: it does wonderfully! It's a blend of similar elements from previous work—view on masculinity, father-son relationship, Arkansas setting, crime mystery—and a new spin that is (emo) romance. The narrative voice is a bit different too, more informal though still personal. Here we follow Crawford as he tries to understand what's happening to him, to his father, to his baby brother, and how he can survive if he lets everything go.

I liked the villains, the heroes, and the villains that dress up like heroes. I liked that there are notable improvements from the first book such as more believable development of Craw's character and clearer character description. I liked that it is more inclusive, too. Hannah's playlist is fire and if I would have a complaint about it, it's because I needed to sing the song (the chapter title) first thus interrupting my reading LOL. It's a 2000s alt music mixtape so it doesn't limit to pop punk/emo only, though I noticed it dominates. And it surely makes my teenage and current self very happy.

I liked Crawford, Hannah, Big Time (he's a National Treasure), but what sticks the most for me is Shotgun's character. After the conflict peaks and the tension heightens (I did NOT see it coming, but having read Strong Like You I should have known better), I found myself thinking about him. He's the perfect example of how much evil and good an antagonist tends to have, how to make him a threat as well as a helper. It's the same with Hunter. Both do something that harm and nurture their children in a different way, but it's damaging still and none of the children deserve that.

This story deals with heavy themes that progress gradually, so it may be a shock to some readers when things escalate rather quickly, but it is handled well too so please be patient. Again, I didn't mind if Crawford and Hannah have to end up like in 3/4 of the book, buuut I was glad the ending is better. With Strong Like You and Cope Field being my favorite cups of tea, I'm afraid the next book will be specifically written for me... LOL we'll see.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flux for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Important novel about parental overinvolvement in youth sports. But the novel feels really heavy and the loose ends are tied up too neatly.

Having read the author's debut novel, "Strong Like You," I was thrilled to have the opportunity to review an ARC of "Cope Field."

Crawford Cope is an angry kid who's sentenced to community service after a violent altercation with his father. As readers get to know Crawford, we find a lot of pain behind his anger. For one, his famous athlete father isn't the role model everyone assumes he is to Craw.

As he performs community service on a baseball field to be named after his dad, Craw spends time with Hannah, a girl who wouldn't have turned his head before. She might be the only one who can help Craw break down the walls of his anger before it destroys the people he loves.

This novel is beautifully written and gets deep into the thoughts of its male teenage protagonist. I highly recommend this novel to children 12 and older and adults who enjoy a good story with love, strong emotions, and a surprising twist.

Trigger warning: The novel contains realistic descriptions of child abuse and drug use.